The Last Straw

• 500 million straws are used daily in the United States alone, enough to fill 125 school buses each day (International Coastal Cleanup Report, Ocean Conservancy, 2017)
• Over 8 million tons of plastic enter the world’s oceans every year (Jambeck et al., 2015)
• By the year 2050, scientists project the oceans will contain more plastic than fish (MacArthur et al., 2016)
• 90% of seabirds (Wilcox et al., 2015) and 30% of sea turtles (Schuyler et al., 2013) have been found with plastics in their stomachs. 86% of all turtle species are affected by plastics (Schuyler et al., 2013)
• 80-90% of the world’s marine debris is made from plastic. There is no way to safely remove the vast majority of the plastic already in the ocean (Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection, 2015)
• Plastic straws are one of the top 10 items picked up during beach cleanups worldwide. In the last 25 years, more than 6 million straws have been removed during annual U.S. beach cleanup events (International Coastal Cleanup Report, Ocean Conservancy, 2017)
• Chemicals from plastics can be harmful to our health as well as the health of marine wildlife.
• Plastics contain known carcinogens and endocrine disrupters that cause direct toxicity, even leaching from plastic containers to food (Stover et al., 1996)
• Packaging and containers account for 23% of the waste in America or 39 million tons per year. Less than 14% of plastic packaging actually gets recycled (Environmental Protection Agency, 2010)
• Only certain types of plastic can be recycled, and only a certain number of times before being discarded into the environment (Stover et al., 2010)
• Specific conditions must be present, such as the appropriate oxygen, light and pressure as executed by an industrial composting facility, in order to break down even “biodegradable” or compostable plastics. Plastic does not biodegrade in a landfill, and not all states and not all countries have industrial composting facilities, so even “biodegradable” plastics are discarded like regular trash (United Nations Environment Programme, 2015)

Sources:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 2010. Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2010. United States Environmental Protection Agency Solid Waste and Emergency Response Report, Washington, DC. 12 p.

Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP), 2015. “Sources, fate and effects of microplastics in the marine environment: a global assessment” (Kershaw, P. J., ed.). (IMO/FAO/UNESCO-IOC/UNIDO/WMO/IAEA/UN/UNEP /UNDP Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection). Reports and Studies. GESAMP No. 90, 96 p.

Jambeck, J.R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T.R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., Narayan, R. and Law, K.L., 2015. Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science, 347(6223), pp.768-771.

MacArthur, D.M, D. Waughray, and M. Stuchtey, 2016. The New Plastics Economy Rethinking the future of plastics. 2016. World Economic Forum. 34 p.

Ocean Conservancy, 2017. International coastal cleanup report 2017. 24 p.

Schuyler, Q., Hardesty, B.D., Wilcox, C. and Townsend, K., 2014. Global analysis of anthropogenic debris ingestion by sea turtles. Conservation biology, 28(1), pp. 129-139.

Stover, R.L., Evans, K., and Pickett, K. 1996. Report of the Berkeley plastic task force. Ecology Center Plastic Task Force, Berkeley, CA. 48 p.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2015. Biodegradable Plastics and Marine Litter. Misconceptions, concerns and impacts on marine environments. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi. 33 p.

Wilcox, C., Van Sebille, E. and Hardesty, B.D., 2015. Threat of plastic pollution to seabirds is global, pervasive, and increasing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(38), pp.11899-11904.